Tucker Carlson Set for Putin Interview? Ex-Fox New Star Host’s Moscow Visit Sparks Controversy

Former Fox News prime time host Tucker Carlson is reportedly in Moscow for an interview of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to reports, Tucker Carlson, who’s on his first trip to Russia, has been in Moscow since 1 February.

According to Mash, on the morning of 1 February, the former Fox News host was spotted at Istanbul airport while boarding a Turkish Airlines flight to Moscow.

The flight was delayed by two hours but Tucker Carlson arrived in Moscow and has been enjoying the metropolitan life in the Russian capital for three days.

On 4 February, Tucker Carlson attended the Spartacus ballet at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.

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Tucker’s Past Claims about US governenment Thwarting His Putin Interview

Tucker Carlson has earlier last year claimed that the National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on him to stop him from interviewing Putin.

The NSA, together with the Central Security Service, is responsible for intercepting and protecting electronic communications on behalf of the US government, and has a broad cyber security remit.

Carlson, a long-time critic of President Joe Biden, in June 2021 said a government whistle-blower had told him the NSA was monitoring him for “political reasons”.

However, NSA had denied the allegations, saying that barring limited exceptions, the agency “may not target a US citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting”.

Carlson responded to NSA’s statement by saying that it was “infuriatingly dishonest” and attacked the White House for failing to issue a denial.

Later in a podcast interview, Carlson said that NSA “broke into” his Signal account. When pressed how did he know it was NSA, Tucker responded, “Because they admitted it”.

“I got a call from somebody in Washington. This person said you’re gonna come to Washington anytime soon? Yeah, actually I am gonna be up [there] in a week. Meet me Sunday morning. So I go and this person is like, are you planning a trip to go see Putin. And I was like how would you know that, I haven’t told anybody, not my brother, not my wife, nobody. How would you know that? [The person replied] because NSA pulled your texts with this other person you were texting,” Carlson said.

Controversy over Tucker Carlson’s visit to Russia

After the news broke of Tucker visiting Moscow to interview Putin, there have been both criticism and praise of the former Fox News star’s move.

Bill Kristol, a neoconservative political commentator, even went on to bat for “total and complete shutdown of Tucker Carlson re-entering the United States”.

“Perhaps we need a total and complete shutdown of Tucker Carlson re-entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” Kristol said.

Sebastian Gorka, who briefly served as deputy assistant to the President in the Trump administration, lambasted Kristol for suggesting barring re-entry of Tucker Carlson to US.

“Spoken like a true fascist. You diminutive, oleaginous creep,” Gorka said.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who recently exited the GOP presidential race, also responded to Kristol’s post on X.

“This sounds more KGB than the KGB,” Ramaswamy said.

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